With all necessary apologies to Lord Vader, yes, I’ve succumbed to the Dark Side.

I had a birthday two weeks ago, and since I’m both picky and difficult to fit, I generally get money. I had, however, made it widely known that, as I’m constantly listening to audiobooks on my Palm, I’d really like to get myself an iPod. Several of my friends, under the direction of ThreadBear Store Manager and all-around bad-ass knitter extraordinaire, Sabrina, gave me an 80GB iPod Classic for my birthday. Roxrz boxrz! Since I’m also fortunate enough to have a totally kick-ass mom who came for a nearly week-long visit for my birthday, it was several days before I got her (the iPod… I call her Audrey) loaded for bear (this one, in particular) and ready to roll.

She worked just fine for the first couple of days. Really.

Then…

*fizzle*
*fart*
*sigh*

Harrumph. Well, as I said, I do frequently get money, and since I’m also a freakin’ nut for the MSU Surplus Store (where they sell off old equipment that belongs to the university that no one is using anymore), I loaded the pups in the car yesterday morning and hit Surplus first thing. Not terribly fond of being left alone, Busby whined through the sunroof (it was early and cool, but I’m rabid about having good air circulation when they’re left in the car) and– quite literally– honked the horn at passers-by, but minutes later, I was loading a Power Book G4 into the trunk.

Yes, I’m a Mac owner. I can finally get one of those cute, little stickers for the back of my car with a bite out of an apple. Excuse me. Out of The Apple. And as a complete Apple newbie, I was delighted to see on the iPod box that Apple’s corporate offices are located at number 1, Infinite Loop. BWAH! That’s so up my alley. Well, I suppose it’s Herr Jobs’ alley, but I understand he shares… some.

Anyway, so now I’ve got an out-mode Mac on my desk, and I suspect I’ll be spending a week or so finding pieces, parts, and software to get him up to speed. Audrey didn’t care too much for him, but I suspect she’ll be headed back to Best Buy later today to be replaced with Audrey2. So, naturally, my Mac has a name, too.

Matthew R. Waldrop
proudly announces the birth
of his latest fascination:
Seymour.

Ain’t he a beaut? (Not a butte… that would just be silly.)

I suspect I’ll get a snide comment or two from my Microsoft buddy, Terri Shea, and I’ll be the very first to admit that I’m already missing some of my shortcut keys (and yes, I know Mac has its own blah-blah-blah), but the image quality is astounding. I already know that I’ll be reviewing every color choice on the Mac from now on.

Wish me luck, though, folks. I’ve got a hard row to hoe getting this bad boy up to my own particular standards. And pray for Rob. He may never see me again.

You’re Watership Down!
by Richard Adams
Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you’re actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You’d be recognized as such if you weren’t always talking about talking rabbits.
Take the Book Quiz at the Blue Pyramid.

Ok.  In all fairness, I’m probably not just Watership Down, but how nice that one of my favorite novels of all time was my result.  I’d have had to add to my reading list if I’d found out that I was anything by Vonnegut, after all (yeah, never).  He was always interesting in interviews, but I just never made the time to read him.

As a matter of fact, there are a great many things that I’ve not made the time to do over the years.  Blogging comes to mind fairly frequently, but that’s actually fairly low on my list.  Exercise, self-enrichment, romantic dinners with my partner, and travel are things that I’m far more concerned about.

For my recent thirty-ninth birthday, I was gifted with a wonderful 80GB iPod Classic, and I’ve been listening to tons of audiobooks for the last week or so.  Three things that I’ve listened to are Crazy Busy by Edward Hallowell, Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins, and Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman.  To be totally honest, I listened to three Stephen King novels and Terry Pratchett’s first Ringworld novel before that, but I did get around to the self-improvement eventually. 

It’s had me thinking how wonderful a life I do have.  I don’t spend my time on what’s really most important to me most of the time, and I do have some major changes to make if I want to be where I do want to be before the big FOUR-O rolls around next April.  Look for major changes that don’t necessarily appear to be major changes, if that makes any sense.  If it doesn’t, nevermind.  It’s really a lot more important to me than it is to anyone else, and that’s just fine.

In the meantime, check out the fun new updates to the shop site.

I’ve had more than one person suggest to me that this is the time of the year when us good ol’ yarn shop owners (LYSO to those who prefer letters) get to relax a little after the mad rush of winter.  Um… no.  It would be lovely, but that certainly hasn’t been the case at ThreadBear.

We had a wonderful visit from Terri Shea, author of Selbuvotter, along with a lecture (for lack of a better term) on the history of this Norwegian knitting tradition and a day-long class on the techniques.  Over this past weekend, the lovely and talented (really, quite lovely and genuinely very talented) Chris Bylsma joined us for classes on her ever-popular Crayon Box Jacket and fiber blending from stash.  We also enjoyed a visit from the Zombie Prom Date Knitters; no, they’re not undead, but they do know how to get down with yarn.

Rob and I each have a handful of classes to teach over the course of the week, Sunday’s Easter, and then we’re in Chicago for three days for the Yarn Market News Smart Business Conference.  We’re back on Thursday (officially our day off… stop laughing!  We sometimes get a day off), I teach on Friday night, Rob teaches on Saturday morning, and we have the first of two Yarn Tasting events on Saturday evening.  He teaches again on Sunday (no doubt, while I’m out restocking refreshments), and we do it again Sunday evening… the Yarn Tasting event, people!  Minds out of the gutters.

We get a week of mostly normal teaching and working, then we’ve got a new teaching event that we’re trying our on Sunday, April 6:  A Primer on Ravelry.  We’ve had several people comment on how they have trouble finding things on Ravelry, and we thought it would be a good idea to actually show people how the site can be used and what it’s all about.  So far, we’ve had a very nice response, so I’m really looking forward to that.

Then, on the following Wednesday, I turn 39.  No, not again.  This will be my first time.  And what do I get for my thirty-ninth birthday?  A visit from the girl what brung me!  My mom’s coming for a long weekend!  And this year we’ll be the same age!  She’s been thirty-nine since old heck was… oh, wait… she reads this.  She’s also thirty-nine (don’t ask… it’s magic).  Anyway, she’s been knitting up a storm, and she’s ready to move on to socks, so we’re planning a crash course for her.  Her mom was a crocheter, and it’s always such a joy to have her here.  It’s like having them both with me.

That Sunday, the thirteenth, we’ll also be hosting the U. S. premiere of More Big Girl Knits!  If I understood Rob correctly, authors Jillian Moreno and Amy Singer will be present, but I might be mistaken about Amy.  She’s always so busy with Knitty and her other myriad projects, it’s hard to keep up with her.

As I mentioned earlier, though, Terri Shea gave me a bit of a kick in the pants about getting to work on my own book, so I’ve been trying to keep an eye out for any mention of men’s clothing, fit, and fashion.  To wit, I submit the following: Suit Your Shape (I tried embedding the video, and it was just disastrous).  It’s not a full-scale education, but it’s a pretty damned good primer for guys that generally give less than a thought to how clothing fits our bodies.  If you’ve got other resources I should check out, please let me know.

For now, I’ve got work to do.  Gotsta get ready for the Mary-lady’s visit.  Much love, people!  Talk to you soon!  -M.

Ok.  Yes, I was dorking around on Ravelry before I left the office tonight and stumbled across this.  I’m not typically one to disrupt the clean (BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA) lines of my oh-so-atypical ride (yeah, I drive a white Civic) with bumper stickers, but this might warrant an exception.

Also, much thanks to everyone who posted comments at YellowPages.com.  It does genuinely mean a lot to us that folks enjoy their experiences with us, and we are always very thankful for your patronage.

Further, if you’ve not had a chance to actually see ThreadBear, you might want to check out KnitTherapy’s recent video podcast.  It’s not particularly indepth, as I believe it was Kim’s first attempt, but it does give a knitter’s-eye-view of ThreadBear on the day of Franklin’s shoot for The 1,000 Knitters Project.  The audiopod of her visit was fun, too, but I called garter stockinette or vice versa… anyway, it’s worth a listen.  Check out Episode 21.

As I mentioned once before, we had a fairly unpleasant review of our store on “Judy’s Book” some time ago.  I found out today that AT&T Yellow Pages pulled that review for their own website.  If you would be so kind, please, offer your own opinion of ThreadBear.

It was a great weekend with Terri Shea, author of Selbuvotter: Biography of a Knitting Tradition.  She was a delight to host, and the feedback was generally quite positive.  Her research and presentation were very interesting, but on a more personal level, she inspired me to get my ass in gear on my own book.  That’s always a bonus.

We have a new sushi chef at our local eatery, Midori, so that was frightening.  Turns out he was quite good at what he did, so I’m curious to get back over there once he’s settled in a bit more.

I’ll have more pics of my knitting shortly, so do stop back by soon.  There are some goodies there.

Yes, I really do still knit on occasion.  Lately, I’ve knit mostly swatches and socks, but when you work over three-hundred days* a year, it’s kind of a chore to get bigger projects off the ground.  I do have other things to show you, but I specifically wanted to show off my adult men’s US shoe size 11 socks in Colinette Jitterbug.  No, I didn’t get a full pair out of a single skein, but I did find a nice way of stretching the yardage that I had as much as possible.

Here’s what I did.  In early January, I was looking for a quick, portable project to take with me to TNNA Market in Long Beach.  I wanted to take socks, but I didn’t want to deal with all the shaping bits.  Instead, I cast on the full number of stitches that I needed for the sock in waste yarn (did that bit on the first leg of the first flight), switched over to the sock yarn, laid in an afterthought heel when I had enough fabric, switched back to waste yarn at the cuff, then switched back to my sock yarn and immediately started the second sock.  With three days of Market and dinners and drinks in the lobby to knit plus all of the flights back home, I completed the tube itself over the long weekend.

At that point, I could have just tossed the tube into a pile to be finished at my leisure and started another pair (don’t think it wasn’t tempting).  Instead, I scheduled a quick class, and picked out a pair for Rob.  Hell, if I’m getting quick socks churned out, he might as well be a beneficiary, no?  It is Valentine’s Day and all. 

His haven’t made it onto the needles yet, but I did start swatching for heels, toes, and cuffs for the first pair.  The winner was a blend of leftover bits of Koigu that I had in my stash from previous projects.  Beyond that, I also had quite a big chunk of the Jitterbug left over that I can now use in something else.  I’ve heard several people complain about short yardage in Jitterbug.  I don’t quite get that.  It’s not a particularly generous skein, but it’s heavier than some sock yarn.  If you’re relying on a specific stitch count instead of formulating the number of stitches that you need for yourself, you may very well run out of yarn, but I certainly got more than I expected to out of a skein… knit firmly.  Just saying.

Oh, and gratuitous cute dog pic…

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*Yeah, I figured it out recently. Know something else? Rob works more. 

Well, there’s really no need to count, but it was a little bit of a love-fest last night at the Bear.  In honor of St. Valentine’s Day, Rob and I asked invited our massage therapist—naturopathic doctor, Candy Chamberlain—if she’d come in and give our customers and staff some “knitterly” massage basics.  We had a bit of a crowd, and she gave hand, shoulder, neck, and arm massages while we poured wine, put cheese on crackers, and generally just enjoyed the company of our guests.  It’s easy to take for granted those people that surround you every day, but we thought this would be an easy way and an ideal moment to say thanks and “WE LOVE YOU!”

Given the aftermath of the goodies table, the lovin’ was mutual.

Speaking of some mutual loving, we also received this awesome figurine! 

The name of the piece is Grandma’s Present, and the sweater’s WAY too big for the poor sheep.  And just the fact that we were gifted with an Enesco figurine…  oh, my god, that was awesome.  Rob and I are so not figurine people, and I’m pretty sure the gifter knew that.  I thought we’d have to put in writing, though, that we understood the joke, but we got it… we definitely got it.  What’s more, both Rob and I learned to knit from our own grandmothers, both of whom would have loved getting a figurine from the people who bring you Precious Moments.  It couldn’t have been more perfect, and he’s happily ensconced on the end table in the living room…  one of the only non-yarn decorations in the room.  Thanks so much!  We really do love it, love you, and can’t wait to visit again soon.

Finally, if you have a chance, check out the pics of Rob’s dyeing day.  Muy atractivo!

Hi, all.  If you’re a fan of knitting podcasts, you may already have heard the recent episode of KnitTherapy in which KnitTherapists Kim and Kimber hit ThreadBear during Franklin’s visit last weekend.  They’re so great, and we were delighted to have them here.  I, however, made a minor gaffe:  Cottage Creations’ Rambling Rows Afghan is not knit in all stockinette stitch; it’s all garter.  My bad.

Kisses!
-M.

It’s a cold and windy day in Lansing, Michigan.

Eight went out, but only two came back. We were able to recover four of the bodies, yet two remain on an icy hill… waiting for dusk and snow to hide them.

Poor Busby appears to be very sensitive to the cold, and I—the kind and generous pooch papa that I am—thought it would be kind to purchase booties so that today, the coldest day we’ve had this season, Busby could take his constitutional in relative warmth and dry. Yes, I also thought, of course, that it would be entertaining to watch him learn to walk in them, but that’s genuinely not the most salient point of the internal argument I made for buying them.

Once in the pet store and looking at the assorted paw protectors, it occurred to me that it would be tragically unfair of me to purchase a set only for Busby when—though he’s shown no visible sign of sore paws in the cold—Tate is our alpha and eldest. So, back to the store I go with canine snow gear on the passenger seat and the idea that I’m a good pet dad.

Rob, Sabrina, Kellie, and I sat and had our lunch with Busby in his accustomed seat in a stool to my side (he’s quite the athlete, our Busby) and Tate, as ever, curled up under the table… just in case something as pleasant as a nice London Broil with a calamari appetizer should fall. It’s generally fries, but a boy can dream. As we were tying up our little impromptu meeting, I started what can only be described as the utter humiliation of our dogs. One on Busby’s front right paw and one on his left became one on this left as I attempted to get one on the back right. We seesawed back and forth even moving to the floor until I started to get the fourth on and Tate wandered up. Three on Busby and one on Tate, and by now, Rob’s gone, Sabrina’s giggling, and Kellie has pushed back her chair so that she can watch under the table.

After eight hard-won protected paws had been attained, I got the leashes. It’s amazing how fast dogs can figure out how to walk through just about anything when leashes start to jingle, so I and the duck walkers headed for the back door. Tate had one off by the time we were five feet from the door. That one went in a coat pocket. Twenty feet further, number two came off—pocketed. One now on a forepaw and one on an aft for Tate. Busby’s still got four, but the walk is young. Tate achieved goal number one of our trip. Busby achieved goal number one of our trip. Still two for Tate and zip for Busby.

Then from behind, Busby frees a forepaw. Elation! Ouch… that’s cold.

Tate frees the back paw. Tate achieves second goal. Busby achieves second goal. Busby frees rear paw. Tate frees forepaw. Now Busby has one each fore and aft, and Tate’s completely free. Those last two for Tate are high on a hill covered with ice and snow and will have to be retrieved later, but he could have cared less. He was free, and—cold or not—he was happy.

Busby, however, was doing something interesting. The same hopping behavior that broke my heart and made me want to buy him booties in the first place is gripping that poor, uncovered back paw. Aw… Sucks to be you, little mister. I worked for fifteen minutes getting those damned booties on ya. I love the poor dog ruthlessly, but he hopped back into the shop. He’ll get all four again the next time we go out. He actually seemed quite pleased to have the two he was still wearing by the time we got back to the shop.

Tate? Um, no. But maybe a sweater…

You… with the camera… you’re NOT thinking of TAKING that, right?

Hmm… What’s going on over there?

Ah… well, at least Busby has to wear them, too.

Why?!? WHY?!?

Nah-nah… nah-nah-nah!

I got to spend the weekend with a cute photographer from Chicago! In boots!

Well, there was a sheep involved, too, but we won’t go there. Dolores sees. Dolores knows.

OH! MY! GOD! I seriously got to spend the weekend (or at least Friday and Saturday evenings) with Franklin Habit! Ok. Yes, he’s a doll. But he’s also incredibly nice. I picked him up at the train station, and he was immediately completely gracious, polite, intelligent, and witty. He’d just spent hours in what I’m sure will be a laugh when gets through spinning it but must have been a trial, but he was all smiles. Classy. Very classy.

He busted ass shooting all day Saturday. [Stop, Jillian. Stop, Rob. Just stop. Dolores, quit snickering.] Jillian Moreno brought a couple of awesome cakes from Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor to celebrate his birthday. Tons of area bloggers and Ravelers showed up. Knitters from everywhere came in droves. It was surreal. And he just kept clicking. Clicking. Smiling, laughing, easing, cajoling, listening, and clicking.

You know, I’m just agog at how nice it was for us to have him at ThreadBear and in our home, but honestly, it’s just occurred to me that Franklin Habit is genuinely living the life. What’s more, I think he knows it; and he’s gracious enough not to rub it in. Congratulations, my man. You deserve every moment of it.